Latest SPORTS CORONAVIRUS UPDATES

The new reality of the NBA (and really all sports) was put on display by Enes Kanter Friday morning.
As players start trickling into the Auerbach Center for limited workouts they will also be subjected to numerous COVID-19 tests. It is a process the Celtics center offered a glimpse into when posting on Twitter Friday morning.
All good 👍 Ready to get back to work 💪 pic.twitter.com/l3zGT4D0HM— Enes Kanter (@EnesKanter) June 5, 2020The plan for the NBA is to start training camps July 9 with games beginning later that month using a 22-team format.

Progress is being made, slowly but surely, in preparing for the 2020 NFL season.
In a memo sent around the NFL on Thursday, the league informed teams that "coaching staffs may be among the employees returning" to facilities as they begin to reopen, so long as state and local governments have authorized and permitted teams to do so.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network shared a larger portion of the memo on Twitter, which included the above snippet as well as additional information regarding the return of faculty to facilities. Dr. Allen Sills, the chief medical officer of the NFL, was responsible for developing health and safety protocols for a proper, relatively low-risk return to team buildings, and the memo further indicates that the number of staff members allowed at the facilities has increased to 100. Again, all of this is still permitted to occur only if the greater state and local governments allow it.
Field Yates added another note regarding players going to facilities at this time.
The NFL has informed teams that, effective tomorrow:* Coaches are permitted to return to practice facilities* Only players receiving treatment are permitted to be at the facility, as has been the case* The maximum number of people at facilities is now up to 100 people— Field Yates (@FieldYates) June 4, 2020Sills spoke with Adam Schefter of ESPN about older coaches specifically, including names like Bill Belichick, who just turned 68.
"We certainly are aware of that because you articulated a really key issue, which is that in thinking about risk here this isn't just about players only but it is about coaches, and medical staff, and support staff, and the people who we determine are going to be in the team's ecosystem," Sills said on The Adam Schefter Podcast﻿. "If that whole group is going to share these risks... there certainly seems to be an age vulnerability, there's certain disproportionate share of African Americans who have been exposed and affected by the virus. There are a lot of those factors that we have to consider.
"You're absolutely right that those are things that we have to factor into our decision making. We know they're of concern to those individuals."
Sill acknowledges the fact that any sort of return makes a zero-risk plan of action impossible.
"We expect that there will be new positive cases that will crop up through the course of the season, and that's despite everyone doing their part and all the best intent of everyone involved," Sills said.
Outside of just government authorization that may affect some teams' chances at a return to their facilities, there are some teams who just don't appear as willing to take the risk. The Jets, for example, are opting to skip minicamp even if it is allowed at some point, according to Brian Costello of The New York Post.

Adam Schefter tweeted something today that seemed to confuse many of his followers. The man who has broken news time and time again, providing us with new information on the daily and getting to the NFL scene before many other reporters, seemingly stated the obvious.
There’s no official announcement, and discussions are ongoing, but multiple people expect that the next time NFL players show up at teams’ training facilities will be for training camp, whenever that begins, per sources.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 3, 2020It’s okay if you’re like the many followers who were confused. And given the headline of this article, it may not seem immediately obvious why I mention it even if you do understand the implications of the tweet, so bear with me.
The first reason this isn't an obvious statement is because NFL players haven’t been able to enter team facilities due to the pandemic for a prolonged period of time. This isn’t normal. The Giants and Jets literally just reopened their facilities on Wednesday, according to NFL writer Nick Shook, but not for players or practices.
And that’s the other thing that’s important to know about Schefter’s tweet. His tweet implies that there may be no OTAs or minicamps. The Jets have already announced that they’re not going to hold a mandatory minicamp, even if it’s allowed (via Darryl Slater of NJ Advanced Media). Coronavirus is scaring people off, for good reason, and it’s drastically changing the way things will be done.
Former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi views Schefter’s tweet and the various developments around the league as a scary sign for things to come, especially when money comes into the equation. All this limited travel dictates that the league is "tightening up", as Lombardi framed it, and this could translate into playing without fans. And playing without any fans leads to a major decline in league revenue. Teams like the Cowboys and the Patriots would lose a massive amount of income without any fans.
Though this is all hypothetical for now, Lombardi doesn’t see league finances, especially the salary cap, as an exception to what the NFL will need to “tighten up” for the 2020 season and beyond. Schefter had already strongly hinted that the salary cap could take a massive hit in 2021 due to the absence of fans and the subsequent lack of any stadium revenue. Based on various estimates, he shared on his podcast and on the My Sports Update podcast that the figure could be anywhere from a $30 million to an $80 million cap hit across the league.
Lombardi fears the worst if this is the case.
“This salary cap issue that’s going on, because of the lost revenue, it could be a huge shortfall and I think it’s going to take some time to get it back,” Lombardi said on the latest episode of The GM Shuffle, available as part of RADIO.COM's vast selection of podcasts. “I think that what we’re headed for next offseason is a huge, huge problem because if Schefter is right… the cap will go down.
“This is going to cause complete panic. This is going to have an unemployment rate in the NFL of quality players beyond anything you’ve ever seen [sic].”
Lombardi pointed to the Eagles as an example. Under normal circumstances, they’re already in a dicey situation, as the team’s current payroll puts them $50.7 million over the salary cap in 2021. But Lombardi suggests that you could cut ties with aging receivers DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery after the season, and Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap explained that restructuring some of the team’s larger contracts, such as Carson Wentz’s, could easily free up the space needed.
No problem, right? Wrong. These aren't normal circumstances, and Lombardi puts us in the worst case scenario, which takes into account the $30 to $80 million extra that could be decreased from the league salary cap.
“If you’ve got to cut [$50 million) plus another 70, you’ve got to cut $120 million off your cap,” Lombardi said. “Good luck. They’re not going to have a team, and you could say, ‘well the owners need to make concessions.’ No, because the owners and the players are partners in this. How do you make a concession when it’s your partner?”
So, what, are the Eagles just going to vanish? I sure hope not as a Philadelphia native. But it goes back to Lombardi’s previous point of seeing an especially high unemployment rate for quality players. A team like the Eagles can restructure contracts in all the fancy ways they want, but $120 million is a monster that’s going to be tough to take down. You could see guys who are fully deserving of jobs under normal circumstances getting released because the money just isn’t there.
Lombardi turns to the Rams as the next example, seeing as they’ve already moved a significant chunk of Todd Gurley’s dead cap into their 2021 payroll.
“Say [the cap] is $80 million less than it was this year,” Lombardi said. “You can forget Andrew Whitworth, you can forget Leonard Floyd, you can forget (A’Shawn) Robinson and (Rob) Havenstein and (Michael) Brockers. You can forget them all.”
Getting released for financial purposes is harsh reality of the NFL, sometimes necessary even without an unprecedented drop off in the salary cap. Now, especially, these cuts could come frequently, which is what Lombardi fears for teams like the Rams.
“It only does you good to trim the guys who have some meat on the bone,” Lombardi said. “The Rams are just going to keep going from bad to bad to bad. What’s going to be left is (Jared) Goff, (Aaron) Donald and a bunch of rookies.”
And that doesn’t even get into the problem of teams looking to sign long-term deals or extensions with stars. Three eminent quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, and Dak Prescott, all face these contractual concerns with varying levels of urgency. Lombardi finds the situation with all three of those guys “very complex” and thinks it will largely be a strategic war between the players’ respective agents.
While MLB has stolen the show during this extended offseason as the league most affected financially -- MLB insider Jon Heyman says that the owners' latest proposal would result in an ‘absolute war’ with the players -- Lombardi’s gloomy outlook shouldn’t leave football fans feeling much better.
“I think we’re headed into the abyss,” Lombardi said. “I think it’s going to be apocalyptic in terms of where this league is going.
“Someone is going to pay a price for not having fans in the stands and it’s not going to be the owners. It’s going to be their partners (the players), and I don’t think people understand that.”
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

The NBA seems all but certain to return on July 31st with an official announcement likely coming within the next 24 hours. The blueprint for the league’s return from a four-month coronavirus hiatus is mostly in place. We know games will be held at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports facility at Disney World with 22 of the league’s 30 teams making the trip to Orlando. The remaining teams will play eight regular-season games before advancing to the postseason. Game 7 of the NBA Finals, if necessary, would be held on October 12th.
However, one important obstacle remains. With the NBA staging neutral-site games in empty arenas for the remainder of 2019-20, how will teams that earned home-court advantage be rewarded for their efforts? On the surface, it would seem impossible, though that hasn’t stopped teams from proposing creative solutions to the NBA’s new home-court conundrum. While none of these scenarios are likely—it would take a two-thirds vote among the league’s Board of Governors to pass—if any of the resolutions actually came to fruition, they would certainly spice up the postseason.
Per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, one proposal includes designating a player from the higher-seeded team to be allowed seven fouls (six is grounds for disqualification under the league’s usual guidelines). Another calls for the higher-seeded team to receive an extra coach’s challenge during games. Other suggestions for home-court include awarding the higher-seeded team possession at the beginning of the second, third and fourth quarters, providing top seeds their choice of hotel accommodations at the Walt Disney Resort and even allowing teams to transport their literal home floors to Orlando to give playoff matchups an added layer of authenticity.
As fun as these scenarios sound on paper, teams aren’t holding their breath. “I do think the NBA cares about it,” an Eastern Conference source told ESPN on the condition of anonymity. “I do not think it’s a top priority for them.” The most radical proposal would allow top-seeded teams to choose their first-round opponent. Predictably, that idea hasn’t gained much traction.
“Picking your opponent can lead to bad karma,” said another unnamed Eastern Conference exec. “You can offend the basketball gods.” There’s no harm in throwing out ideas, but in all likelihood, this year’s playoffs will be devoid of any tangible home-court advantage. It’s a missed opportunity for teams like the Lakers and Bucks, who cruised through the regular season, but in a post-COVID NBA, the league has to pick its battles.
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

As talks progress about the potential 2020 MLB season, the league may soon have some precedent on how to deal with a potential in-season outbreak of COVID-19 courtesy of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
Kyodo News reports that the Yomiuri Giants called off a scheduled NPB preseason game against the Seibu Lions on Wednesday after two players, catcher Takumi Oshiro and shortstop Hayato Sakamoto, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Polymerase Chain Reaction tests administered following the two teams’ first exhibition game on Tuesday.
Oshiro and Sakamoto were reportedly two of four Giants to test positive for coronavirus antibodies in tests administered last week – the group comprising the first players to test positive since three Hanshin Tigers players did so back in late-March – so they were given PCR tests following Tuesday’s game.
Both players have been hospitalized to be re-tested, but according to the team, they showed only traces of the virus and have both been asymptomatic. The Giants plan to test anyone who came into contact with Oshiro or Sakamoto on Thursday morning, but a league medical advisor believes they pose a low infection risk to the rest of the team.
"The two players had recovered from their infections, and it appears a significant amount of time had passed,” epidemiologist Mitsuo Kaku, who has advised both NPB and J-League soccer on COVID-related matters, told Kyodo News. "For that reason it appears there is not a high risk they would expose others around them."
Perhaps even better news: the Seibu Lions do not plan to test their players, and NPB secretary general Atsushi Ihara said that, “under the circumstances, I don't think this will have any effect on us."
NPB began its preseason schedule on Tuesday after deciding last week to play an abbreviated 120-game season beginning behind closed doors on June 19.
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

The NBA is diligently plotting its return from COVID-19 with the league’s Board of Governors fully expected to approve a July 31st reopening when voting commences later this week. The latest proposal calls for a 22-team restart, which would exclude eight of the league’s 30 franchises including the 20-47 Atlanta Hawks. Lloyd Pierce, who is in his second season at the helm in Atlanta, thinks the rebuilding Hawks could benefit from playing in Orlando, even if the games don’t mean anything.
“I coach the youngest team in the NBA," said Pierce while appearing on The Jump with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols. "And the biggest thing we can benefit from is playing basketball, and the game has been taken away from all of us at this point."
The Hawks are nowhere near playoff contention—only the Warriors, Cavaliers and Timberwolves have worse records. The NBA is trying to limit players’ exposure amid the coronavirus pandemic, which means non-playoff squads like the Hawks likely won’t make the cut when the season resumes at Disney World next month. However, Pierce thinks sending Atlanta home for the summer would do his team a disservice when what the Hawks really need is more reps.
“If the season is going to resume and we're still not a part of it, it hurts our growth, it hurts our product, it hurts our ability to continue the momentum that we need going into next season,” said Pierce of his developing team led by rising stars Trae Young and John Collins. “They need game experience and so we need to play basketball, we want to play basketball.”
Pierce, who replaced Mike Budenholzer (now of the Milwaukee Bucks) as the team’s head coach in 2018, understands the logistical challenges of a 30-team restart and that time is not on anyone’s side following a three-month NBA hiatus. But the first-time coach still hopes his team will take the court again this season. “We're on our Zoom meetings, Thursdays and Sundays, and our guys want to do it," said Pierce, whose team was beginning to show signs of life (5-6 record since the All-Star break) when COVID-19 prompted the league’s shutdown in March. “Whatever the course of action that happens, we'll continue to find ways to get better as an organization with our guys."
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

With Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association negotiating return-to-play scenarios, an 82-game season, a 114-game season, and a 50-game season have reportedly been floated.
Of those three, which is most likely? Or is at least closest to what the final number will be?
“I think the 82 games will be [closest],” MLB Network insider Jon Heyman said on Tiki & Tierney. “That said, I don’t think that sliding scale is going to work. I do think that concept makes some sense, but the pay cuts were just way too drastic for the players. I think they need to negotiate that.”
As for the 50-game scenario, Heyman doesn’t put much stock in it.
“The 50 games, I think, is a negotiating tactic,” he said. “Just saying we can start at 40 or 50 games, that would result in an absolute war. The players obviously do not want to come back and play for less than one-third of their pay if it’s 50 games. I just don’t think he would do that. I think Rob Manfred is understanding that he needs the players, he needs to work with the players, the players are the game, and they need to work it out.”
Manfred, 62, has at least one thing going for him: he has worked for MLB for over 20 years, and there has never been a work stoppage on his watch.
“I think his track record suggests they will get it done,” Heyman said. “The owners may not be thrilled. In the end, they’re going to lose money. If they cancel the season, they’re going to lose a ton of money. If they play and pay [the players] a reasonable rate, they’re still going to lose a lot of money. But for the good of the game, I think most of them understand that they need to play.”
While some owners are reportedly open to canceling the 2020 season, Heyman believes that is a small minority.
“I bet there’s one or two or three that feel that way, but it would take eight to feel that way for the season to end,” he said. “I do think the vast majority of owners want to play and they have to know they’re going to lose money either way. That’s just the way it goes. It’s a pandemic. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, hopefully.”
Ultimately, Heyman believes there will be baseball in 2020.
“I believe they will figure it out – someway, somehow – because they know the alternative is terrible for the game,” he said. “You got to play, and they understand that. That said, we know there hasn’t been any progress to this point, and that’s a little disappointing.”
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

Kevin Youkilis knows about struggles and hardships; his MLB career ended after a back injury limited him to 28 games with the 2013 Yankees and his final appearance on June 13 of that year saw him go 0-for-7 in an 18-inning Yankees loss to the Athletics in Oakland.
These days, Youkilis remains in the Bay Area, hoping his second career doesn’t succumb to a similar fate, this one borne of the economic hardships surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Youkilis’ new passion is one many enjoy while enjoying a ballgame: beer, specifically the Loma Brewing Company in Los Gatos, Calif., that he is a co-owner of. The brewery has earned rave reviews, being named the California Commercial Beer Brewery of the Year at the 2017 California State Fair, thanks in part to its flagship beverage — a double IPA named “Greek God of Hops” in homage to his nickname.
However, the effects of COVID-19 shutdowns in California have shuttered LBC’s taproom for nearly three months, and Youkilis told CBS San Francisco that he estimates an 80 percent drop in business as a result of the pandemic, with reason for concern of solvency.
“We were helped out by the PPP loan,” Youkilis told CBS San Francisco, “and we have people with a lot of tenacity that are doing their part to keep Loma Brewing afloat.”
However, cutbacks mean things like less importing of hops, which has taken Greek God of Hops off the menu for now, with Loma concentrating on “brewing stuff with hops that we have in-house and trying not to spend as much money,” according to Youk.
A big-time blow to his dream of taking Loma’s product national, but Youkilis hopes that converting part of his real estate footprint into a recording studio and kicking off a new business-related podcast named after his signature swill will help stem the tide for now.
In the meantime, he’s also kept up with the current negotiations around his former employers, and the former MLBPA union rep is a little more bearish than most about the prospects of an MLB season in 2020.
“I’m just not optimistic and I want to be optimistic,” Youk said. “The owners don’t open up their books ever, and if they opened up their books, I think people would be more empathetic and understanding in certain situations.”
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM AppFollow RADIO.COM SportsTwitter | Facebook I Instagram

Pedro Martinez has never been shy when it came to offering his opinions. You also won't find too many people who are more passionate about the game of baseball.
So when Martinez made his feelings clear regarding the importance of getting the Major League Baseball players back on the field when appearing on NBC Sports Network's "Lunch Talk Live" with Mike Tirico it shouldn't have come as a surprise.
Martinez's message to the owners and the players: Figure it out.
"I'm hoping that both sides actually stop thinking about their own good and start thinking about the fans," Martinez said. "I think this is a perfect time to have their baseball teams out there and try to have the people forget a little bit about what's going on. It's not only the pandemic, it's everything that's going on. People need something to actually do and find a way to relax. I hope that the Players' Association and MLB realize how important it is to bring some sort of relief to people."
While there was seemingly some movement toward a compromise between the two sides Monday, there remains the pessimism that comes with back-and-forth haggling over finances.
Martinez has lived in that world. But he also sees the big picture damage that prolonged bickering will do to his sport.
"The economics is the dark part of baseball. The business part of baseball is dirty. It's dark," Martinez said. "And I hope that they take into consideration who pays our salaries, what the people do for us, how important the people are, and forget about or at least bend your arm a little bit to find a middle ground for the negotiations."

The MLB Players Association has reportedly put forth a proposal to the league's owners for a potential return to action in 2020.
The players have offered to play a 114-game season beginning June 30, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN, and any player who does not wish to play because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis would be allowed to opt out.
The season would end October 31 under the terms of the plan, the report said, and would also include deferred salaries in the event of a canceled postseason.
The plan, which was sent to the owners on Sunday, is the first offered up by the players, Passan noted, and was expected to be "immediately" rejected. It comes several days after the owners put forth a widely panned proposal which would have seen the players take a second round of pay cuts, after prorated salaries were agreed upon in preceding weeks.
The players hoped the offer would be a starting point for further talks, Passan noted, as baseball aims to become the first of the major professional sports leagues to return from the suspension.
Also included in the players' offer was two years' of expanded playoffs (from 10 teams to 14), and a request for a $100 million cash advance for players while they ramp up during a potential second "spring training," the report said.